A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica
The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi
- 432 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica
The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi
About this book
This book presents for the first time the complete text of the earliest known Ladino-language memoir, transliterated from the original script, translated into English, and introduced and explicated by the editors. The memoirist, Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi (1820–1903), wrote about Ottoman Jews' daily life at a time when the finely wrought fabric of Ottoman society was just beginning to unravel. His vivid portrayal of life in Salonica, a major port in the Ottoman Levant with a majority Jewish population, thus provides a unique window into a way of life before it disappeared as a result of profound political and social changes and the World Wars. Sa'adi was a prominent journalist and publisher, one of the most significant creators of modern Sephardic print culture. He was also a rebel who accused the Jewish leadership of Salonica of being corrupt, abusive, and fanatical; that leadership, in turn, excommunicated him from the Jewish community. The experience of excommunication pervades Sa'adi's memoir, which documents a world that its author was himself actively involved in changing.
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Information
Glossary
Abbreviations*
abr. | abbreviation |
ar. | Arabic |
aram. | Aramaic |
coll. | collective |
engl. | English |
fr. | French |
gr. | Greek |
it. | Italian |
lad. | Ladino |
lat. | Latin |
Ne. | Nehama |
old.sp. | Old Spanish |
ott. | Ottoman |
pers. | Persian |
pl. | plural |
port. | Portuguese |
prob. | probably |
Rd. | Redhouse |
sp. | Spanish |
syn. | synonym |
tr. | Turkish |
Ladino/Hebrew/Turkish-English Glossary
A
aaz | ’azl > aaz, spelled  |
abarrontar | for abarrotar, to preserve, secure (evidence) |
abasho | below •abasho de: less than; approximately |
aborreser | to abhor, hate |
achake | also achak, sp. achaque, pretext •kon el achake ke: under the pretext that, Ne. 5b |
achetar | it. accetare, to accept |
adjem | ott.  |
adjente | it. agente, agent, agency |
adjile | ott.  |
adjunta | it. agiunta, gathering, council, committee •adjuntas i djuzgo: court sessions and sentencing |
adjuntar | to join •adjuntar byervos: to combine Hebrew consonants with vowels to create words •embezar a adjuntar: learn to read |
ado... |
Table of contents
- Cover
- Copyright
- Title Page
- Contents
- Editors’ Acknowledgments
- Note on Translation and Transliteration
- Note on Currencies, Weights, and Measures
- Note on Sigla Used in the Ladino Romanized Text and English Translation
- Editors’ Introduction
- The Memoir of Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi
- English Translation
- Romanized Transliteration
- Notes
- Glossary
- Works Consulted
- Index